Feature Articles
Attitudes and Behavior:
Kham Moua | Civil Rights Fellow
I
am bombarded by media messages from the moment I
wake up until the moment I go to sleep. The things I do
in the morning include swiping away breaking news stories
on my phone, checking my Facebook, skimming my emails,
and listening to news on NPR as I brush my teeth. There is
not a single second of my life where I am disconnected from
the world. Traditional and new media heavily influence our
attitudes, regardless of whether or not we are conscious of
their effect. And if they affect our attitudes, can they influence
our behaviors?
My everyday conversations are peppered with information
that I have heard on the news or read on social media.
I comment on the protestors in Venezuela or the Ukraine,
even though I’ve never been to either country and know only
fragments about the situations in both countries. It is the
same with many of us. Some individuals in the United States,
who may or may not know any Asian Pacific Americans
(APAs), earnestly believe APAs eat dogs, even though they
may have never experienced an event that would prompt
that assumption. Likewise, some women who may have
never had any experiences with African American men may
unconsciously cross the street when they walk her way at night
due to misperceptions. These attitudes and beliefs do not
occur by themselves. They are oftentimes rooted in television,
film, news, and social media.
Frank Wu, dean of the University of California – Hastings
College of Law and author of Yellow, also agrees that “mass
media influences ev \